Linguine w/ Bacon and Peas in Cream Sauce

As innocuous as this first seemed, the more I cooked, the more I thought of Monte's, that perfect little basement Italian ristorante in the Village. This is somewhere between the ham and peas pasta there, and a recipe I adapted from Emeril's.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• Butter
• Heavy cream
• Onions
• Garlic
• Bacon, ham, proscuitto
• Peas, frozen
• Red pepper flakes (black pepper works too)

Start the water boiling for the pasta.

Add enough olive oil to cover about a third of the bottom of a medium saucepan over medium heat, then melt a tablespoon of butter. When everything is melted together, cook finely diced onions until they're translucent (a couple of minutes). Add a couple of cloves of garlic, simmer a about a minute. If you're using bacon, cook the bacon seperately until it's almost crispy, then throw in the saucepan. If you're using ham, throw it in now (dice it first, obviously). Add about a quarter glass of wine, and let simmer for about 3 minutes until the alcohol cooks out.

Add pasta to boiling water.

Throw in the cream (about 4 ounces, depending on how heavy you want it to be), peas, salt and pepper. Let cook down to half the volume, until it starts to thicken. Add grated parmesan cheese at the very end, then spoon over pasta.

Next time, I wouldn't add the onions, and I'd suck it up and throw in all the cream. Plus, it'll need a bit of salt at the end, even if you use unsalted butter.

Serves - about 3 people.

Cost: Cream ($3), Peas ($1.50), Wine (depends on how much you drink), Butter ($0.25), Bacon or ham ($2) = ~$7.00